Maria Sharapova books her place in the 3rd round of Wimbledon

5th seeded Maria Sharapova took on the challenge of Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky who is ranked at 85 on Court 1 in the late afternoon. The Russian won here ten years ago aged just 17 and, having just won her second French Open title, is hoping to go all the way after losing in the second round last year. The very talented Swiss got through qualifying and won her first round match 6-1 6-3 against the Canadian, Sharon Fichman, while Sharapova lost just one game in beating the Brit Samantha Murray. She continued her good form on the grass to take out Bacsinzky 6-2 6-1 in just 57 minutes, even though some of the games were close.

On Court 12 the unseeded American Madison Keys faced off against the 31st seed, Klara Koukalova, who has been having great success of late. The American took the first set 7-5 in 35 minutes and went on to lead 6-5 with the Czech serving to stay in the match. Koukalova held to force a breaker, which she took 7-3 to force a decider. Games went toe to toe early in the set before the American pulled away to lead 5-2 with her serve to come and she served out the set without any problems at 6-2.

Earlier in the day, 20th seeded Andrea Petkovic took on Irina-Camelia Begu, the 81st ranked player from Romania. This was new territory for Begu, as she had never gone past the first round before, while Petkovic is a seasoned campaigner and reached the French Open semis just a few weeks ago. Petkovic took the first set 6-4, Begu the second 6-3 and the German closed matters out with an easy 6-1 final set.

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